Living Coral Reef Found for the First Time in Greenland

A living reef of cold-water corals has been found for the first time in Greenland waters, according to a report in the International Council for the Exploration at Sea's journal ICES Insight.

Although individual coral species have been found in Greenland before, this is the first time a whole living reef has been discovered there. But at approximately 900 meters below the surface and in icy waters with strong currents, the reef is not likely to become a tourist destination for scuba divers.

The reef, made of Lophelia pertusa, or eye-coral, was found by accident by scientists aboard a Canadian research vessel taking water samples off the coast of southwest Greenland near Cape Desolation. The vessel, CCGS Henry Larsen, was taking part in an international multidisciplinary cruise when researchers from Dartmouth University's Bedford Institute of Oceanography sent an instrument in to the water to take measurements.

Researchers discovered the eye-coral reef after the instrument they sent to collect water samples came back to the ship broken. The researchers were able to identify the cause of their equipment's destruction because of several coral branches were brought back up with it.

The coral specimen was identified by professor Ole Tendal from Denmark's Natural History Museum.

In the moment, the Dartmouth researchers were uninterested in the coral and were about to throw it back in the water before its significance became clear.

"At first the researchers were swearing and cursing at the smashed equipment and were just about to throw the pieces of coral back into the sea, when luckily they realized what they were holding," said Helle Jørgensbye, a PhD student at the Technical University of Denmark's AQUA program who was on the research vessel.

"It's been known for many years that coral reefs have existed in Norway and Iceland and there is a lot of research on the Norwegian reefs, but not a great deal is known about Greenland. In Norway, the reefs grow up to 30 meters high and several kilometers long. The great Norwegian reefs are over 8,000 years old, which means that they probably started to grow after the ice disappeared after the last ice age. The Greenlandic reef is probably smaller, and we still don't know how old it is," said Jørgensbye, who does research into life at the bottom of the west Greenland waters.

Jørgensbye said it was not entirely unexpected to find a living coral reef in Greenland waters.

"There are coral reefs in the countries around Greenland and the effect of the Gulf Stream, which reaches the west coast, means that the sea temperature get up to about 4 degrees [Celsius], which is warm enough for corals to thrive. In addition to the, for Greenland, comparatively warm temperature, a coral reef also needs strong currents. Both these conditions can be found in southern Greenland," she said.